Audio, Podcasts & radio, Auntie’s hot button

Par Miranda Sawyer - 3 mn

Nile Rodgers at the starry Tate Modern launch of BBC Sounds. Photograph by Pete Dadds

BBC SoundsBeyond Today Radio 4End of Days Radio5 Live

I went to the launch of a new app the other day. (Just writing that makes my knees creak.) It was a celeb-packed, wine-and-nibbles party at the Tanks at Tate Modern, and Mabel and Craig David and Chic all performed. In between songs, Claudia Winkleman, Greg James and Dotty made some jokes. General party vibe? Congenial, chatty, quite staid. But that seems about right when you remember that it was a shindig to celebrate a new virtual button on your smartphone.

The new button is orange, with a big S on it. This stands for Sounds. For, lo, the new app is BBC Sounds , and the Beeb is immensely proud. At the party, director general Tony Hall and James Purnell, director of radio and education, went onstage to talk about “responding to your tastes, your moods”, “playing with form and content” and “public service running through its veins”. Amaz...